My Life in BOXES

While having a clear-out, Gabby realised there were some things that just couldn't be thrown away

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It’s hardly surprising that I find it hard to throw anything away,’ Gabby said, wiping a thick layer of dust from the screen of her childhood Etch A Sketch. ‘When I was helping my mum clear out her house last weekend, I found a sachet of bread sauce mix in the kitchen cupboard that went out of date in 1998!’

Susan smiled and picked up a shiny purple garden gnome from where it was nestling in a box of chipped teacups and party streamers.

Gabby frowned down at the gnome’s grinning face. ‘Don’t ask me where that came from. I don’t even have a garden.’

Susan laughed. ‘You don’t have a cat either, but you appear to have a cat's collar with a bell.’

Gabby took the cat's collar from Susan and stroked it fondly. ‘This collar belonged to my childhood pet, Margaret Scratcher. We found her as a stray in the back of our shed among Dad's tools and bags of compost. She was quite feral but she stuck with us. We all loved her.’

‘So I take it that means the collar is a keeper?’

Gabby nodded, and Susan placed the collar in the ‘keep it’ pile. Then she picked up the gnome again and waved it in the direction of the ‘chuck it’ pile.

Gabby pouted. ‘He’s got such a cheerful little face. I couldn’t possibly throw him in that horrid skip.’

Susan placed the gnome next to the cat’s collar with a resigned sigh. She was beginning to realise that the job of helping her friend declutter was going to be more arduous than she’d anticipated. She glanced around Gabby’s living room at the shelves crowded with lamps, plants and ornaments, all jostling for space among books and CDs. Gabby’s mum had moved into a retirement home two months earlier, and Gabby’s three-bed semi was now having to accommodate her mother's clutter as well.

‘The CDs could all go,’ Susan said, hopefully. ‘You never play CDs any more now you've got Spotify.’

Gabby shrugged. ‘I was thinking of getting a CD player.’